Tag Archives: DOVE chocolate

Dove Chocolate, a product made by the Mars company, released the following commercial as part of their recent advertising campaign in the United States.

As you can see, the video very obviously sexualizes Dove chocolate, and presents it as a sort fetish for the woman in the commercial. Her flowing, silky brown nightwear, resembling a form of lingerie, helps to portray the sexiness that chocolate represents in this advertisement.

The commercial includes multiple shots of a woman closing her eyes and smiling as she consumes delicious-looking Dove chocolate. Close ups of her lips, mouth, the soft skin on her shoulders, and specifically the visual of the chocolate slowly being put into her mouth, all aim to further sexualize the woman and the chocolate in the commercial. When she consumes the chocolate she looks incredibly happy, although a more accurate or appropriate way to describe her expression would be: pleased.

Throughout the commercial, sensual music plays in the background and a provocative female whisper describes how the chocolate makes women “savor,” “sigh,” and “melt” – all things that can very obviously used to describe sexual pleasure. The commercial ends with a silky blanket uncovering the chocolate, much like someone would uncover his or herself in bed.

Ultimately, the commercial’s message is that chocolate for this woman is the same thing that silky lingerie is for men – a tantalizing fetish. Incredibly, the Mars company is so convinced that women feel this way about chocolate that they explicitly conveyed this message as a way to attract women to their product.

This commercial comes into production after a longstanding history of women being targeted by chocolate companies in an effort to sell their product. Chocolate companies have long umbrellaed females into a group that perceives chocolate as a fetish or guilty pleasure. By making a commercial like this, they only perpetuate such inaccurate stereotypes.

To combat the stereotypical portrayal of women being enthralled or seduced by chocolate, I created the following ad:

The advertisement is simply three bathrooms, one male, one female, and one multi-gender. The slogan reads:

“Just like everyone poops, everyone loves chocolate. Be more like these bathrooms and just include everyone.”

The first line of the slogan “Just like everyone poops…” pays homage to a popular children’s book entitled “Everyone Poops.” It is primarily incorporated in the ad to catch the viewers attention and provide a sense of humor, as memorable one liners and humor are both psychologically proven to resonate more with the human brain. This line also does a very good job of making the ad incredibly un-sexy, which is perfect in light of the Dove commercial it was created to contrast.

The main message of the ad is very clearly to acknowledge that chocolate companies need to stop targeting specific groups with advertisements that promulgate negative stereotypes, and to include every group in their advertisement campaigns, and to do it fairly.

Long a symbol of wealth, prestige, and power, in contemporary European (and now in North American cultures as well), chocolate is also associated with “romantic love, personal indulgence, and festive occasions.” (Leissle, 131)

This play on personal indulgence has led modern day marketers to not only continue to target the elite, but more specifically to women, sexualizing them by creating a narrative that they can be aroused and sinfully satisfied through the act of eating chocolate.

Dove Chocolate, a subsidiary of MARS (https://www.dovechocolate.com/aboutdove), has perpetuated this stereotype through a series of advertisements for their new chocolate with almonds. The message delivered through the campaign (print and video) is that only Dove can provide a chocolate so pure and silky. Its visuals, taglines, and representation tell a story that focuses on sensations and indulgent “moments” where true joy seems to live, but only for the exclusive, privileged few.

Dove’s Original Print

Dove’s original print invites the viewer to “nourish” one’s soul through the saturation of one’s senses. This is shown as a guilty pleasure. An attractive woman with flawless skin is seen up-close, enveloped in silky rich fabric. Caught up in the bliss of her “moment,” she appears to be perfectly at ease, naked, a glow in her cheeks, bedroom eyes, hair blowing in an unseen breeze as she rests amid the silk with a secretive smile. This smile seems to imply something intimate, nearly post-coital, as if the viewer has caught a glimpse of her in this luxurious moment; as if she is basking in the delight of a chocolate-induced orgasm.

Dove’s Revised Advertisement

Dove’s revised advertisement also focuses on cherished, magical moments, but instead of the erotic or exclusive, they are moments, alone or shared, that celebrate life’s milestones – monumental or mundane.

The new print focuses on strength and challenging oneself (as seen in the woman rock climbing), unity (a family enjoying an afternoon outdoors), joy (friends jumping on the beach), support and teamwork (a game of wheelchair basketball), firsts (teaching a child to fish), celebration (a group of elderly friends dancing), romantic love (a couple holding a heart), and health (a family sitting down to share a balanced meal). Inspirational natural beauty is also included with the sun setting over a lake and then rising again. The new print encourages viewers to “nourish” their souls and “saturate” their senses through beautiful moments for all.

In sum, chocolate is not a sexualized joy or moment for an elite few, but a food and experience to be enjoyed by all.

The overt sexualization of women is pervasive in current chocolate advertising. This is likely an artifact of the portrayal of chocolate as sinful, which has been common in western culture since its introduction to the European market. Chocolate advertising is, and has been for a long time, problematic in many ways, but the sexism and clear sexual innuendo in its advertising seems both the most frequent abuse as well as the most curious. Chocolate is mostly an impulse purchase in the U.S. and Europe, and is most often purchased by women, so chocolate advertising, understandably, targets women (Martin, Lecture 2016). At the same time, however, the portrayal of women in chocolate ads is often incredibly sexist, and sexualizes them in a way that is expected of ads targeting a mostly male audience.

I have selected three chocolate advertisements that use this form of marketing. The first is a frame from an advertisement for a Cadbury flake bar, in which the viewer intrudes on a young woman eating a Cadbury chocolate flake bar in her bathtub, and presumably having an orgasm. Really, the imagery is so apparent that we don’t actually have to presume that much, if at all. It is understandable that a company would want to advertise a product to women as capable of giving them orgasms, at least on the level of ‘sex sells,’ yet ads like this portray the women as obsessive and sex-crazed, at best, and objects akin to a piece of chocolate at worst. Emma Roberts points out in her book that there is a clear link in advertising between women and sex, and that such advertisements “perpetuate western sexist and racist ideologies under a veneer of pleasurable consumption” (Robertson 2009), yet this is often used to sell products to men. In fact, advertisement research on the topic has shown that women in general respond more negatively to sexual advertisements than men (Dahl, Sengupta, & Vohs 2008). Why would ads for women cross the line from selling sex to women, to selling sex to men and falling into sexist stereotypes?

This woman is apparently having an orgasm by eating this chocolate bar in a way that suggests fellatio. Nobody eats chocolate like this, and no one eats chocolate in a tub. Why is she being sexualized to sell the chocolate to women?

Below are two more ads that fall into the category of sexualization in a way that targets women and is at the same time offensive to them. In the advertisement of Filthy chocolate, the sinfulness and obsessiveness that often ties women and chocolate together is explicitly written in the text of the advertisement. Further, we can see the woman, clothed in chocolate, in a state of what seems to be intense pleasure, but with her body contorted in an extremely unrealistic way, and which portrays sexuality but not ‘properness.’ That is, it buys into a typical representation of women for male audiences, that aims to portray them as sexual objects, but with some degree of resistance to that sexuality, because are not intended to embrace their sexuality as openly as men can. In the advertisement by dove, it is hard to discern any traceable attempt to appeal to women, other than the fact that a woman is eating the chocolate. The woman holds her mouth and consumes the chocolate in an incredibly sexual way, but is disembodied, without any character, and shows no sign of enjoyment of the action, which the other ads, though problematic, at least are able to achieve. This ad strikes me as completely nonsensical, as it only sexualizes the woman but fails to deliver any convincing evidence that the chocolate will maker her happy.

In our advertisements, my group partner and I decided recreated these advertisements with men eating chocolate in the absurd way that women are portrayed as eating chocolate in many of these ads. It is intended to point out the completely flawed thinking that goes into ads that target women at the same time as stereotyping and objectifying them. First, and most apparently, nobody actually eats chocolate the way that these women are portrayed as eating chocolate. It is actually accepted in the media as not being absurd because people are used to this overt sexualization of women, but our ad points out how absurd it is by showing people very different from incredibly attractive, likely airbrushed, women eating chocolate in this manner. These ads include an attempt to portray the contorted, sexual-yet-shy body language of the ‘Filthy’ chocolate ad, to the apparent orgasm that eating chocolate can give a person. In the context of young men doing these things instead of young women, they seem ridiculous.

The below video is a Dove commercial of a woman experiencing different “senses” as she eats a piece of Dove chocolate. This advertisement epitomizes the sexualization of women in chocolate advertisement as discussed by Emma Robertson and Dr. Martin. With an advertisement I created, I attempt to push back on this type of advertising and present a woman eating chocolate in a different context: while working in a non-stereotypically feminine job. The analysis of my advertisement shows how companies can take a different approach to chocolate advertisements that is less likely to alienate women. Advertisements similar to the one I created provide a multi-faceted view of women as people, rather than women as sexual objects without control of their emotions.

I took some screenshots of key moments in the video to aid in my analysis (with the time in the video included); below is one such screenshot. The woman is depicted sighing as she is draped in a silk chocolate cloth. The sound of her sigh is sexual in nature and she seems not in control of her responses. Robertson explains how women in advertisements “were pictured apparently lashing out” (21-22). Robertson is discussing the idea that women are often depicted in advertisements as out of control and this advertisement is one such example.

The Dove commercial becomes even more sexual and problematic towards the end, specifically with the scene shown below. A nut explodes at the same moment that a women yells “Oh!” in a manner similar to an orgasm. Robertson describes this trend in Aero chocolate advertisements: “In each advert a different woman is depicted taking a bite of an Aero bar. Some look a little guilty at being caught in the act, while others look sexily at the camera at the camera. The orgasmic pleasure brought about by their ‘urges’ being satisfied is revealed in the projected responses…” (Robertson 35). In this commercial, it is implied that the woman’s response to eating Dove chocolate is an orgasm. This is extremely sexual and problematic. It presents women as sexual beings incapable of controlling their responses.

Below is my advertisement that attempts to push back against these depictions of women. A woman is pictured eating chocolate while working, specifically programming. Many people, men and women, use chocolate as a quick snack while working, so this is a more realistic view. Additionally, the woman is not posed in a sexual manner and is focused on her work rather than the chocolate. Robertson discusses how there was a trend to fetishize “women as housewives and mothers” (Robertson 20). This advertisement also challenges this trend because it shows a woman working, and on a stereotypically “male” task.

Leissle writes about Divine’s attempt to place female cocoa farmers in a more realistic manner: “… the Divine women – cocoa farmers who appear in a fashionable, cosmopolitan aesthetic – provide visual evidence of African women’s participation in luxury consumption, while at the same time offering the idea that such African consumerism is possible, and inviting its repetition” (Leissle 134). My advertisement does the same; it attempts to provide visual evidence for a woman’s levelheaded consumption of chocolate in a non-sexual context. As Divine’s advert attempts to provide something that is a “realistic of African women’s lives,” my advert attempts to do the same for American women’s lives (Leissle 136).

The Dove advertisement is clearly meant to suggest a sexual connection between women and chocolate. Sexual music with women sighing and yelling “Oh!” plays in the background throughout. My advertisement attempts to place women’s relationship with chocolate in a more realistic light. In decoupling women’s relationship with chocolate and sex, it provides a less problematic way for advertisers to connect with women and sell their products.

Sources:

Robertson, Emma. Chocolate, Women and Empire: A Social and Cultural History. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010. pp. 1-131

Introduction

One of the ‘Big Five,’ Mars Chocolate, has once again set about marketing their latest creation: DOVE Fruit and Nut Blends. This particular campaign is being advertised in the U.S. market, however, the fetishization of women in connection to selling chocolate is not limited to North America, Mars, nor the chocolate industry. Robertson (2009) develops a narrative where the consumption of chocolate became feminized early on in the West. Robertson describes women as the household adult having purchasing power and (after seeing a commercial geared toward this power), wanting to do right by her children and husband and thus finding a way to satisfy their chocolate needs. However, Robertson, describes a shift in advertising post WWII (1940s and 1950s), where the housewife becomes a magical figure and both she and the product end up becoming fetishized. Fast forward to the current DOVE Chocolate commercial being played out today: A light-skinned woman of uncertain ethnic descent appears in the first second of the 30 second video, but the viewer does not get familiar with her face because it will become evident that the commercial is not about her, rather her expressions and the way her body seemingly responds to this new fruit and nut dark chocolate blend. It is well established that advertising firms should know their audience and market, however, the sensuality seen in recent chocolate commercials is a bit perplexing. If it is really about the chocolate, then the chocolate should be able to sell itself or not rely too heavily on the woman being featured.

DOVE Chocolate

Video credits and information:

Length: 30 seconds

Released: March 2016, U.S.

BBND-NY Advertising Agency

Production Company: The Joinery

Directed by: Ozan Biron

In “Who’s winning China’s chocolate war?,” Mars has emerged as the victor, but by far, (34% of national consumption), their DOVE brand reigns supreme within the Chinese market. It is interesting to see Mars come out on top because Allen (2010), was emphatic about the Big Five finding their niche in the vast Chinese market. Specifically, Allen asserted that the chocolate company with the ability to make their brand stand out would win over the Chinese consumer. Allen pointed to the traditional gift-giving practice that chocolate could play-but this would mean focusing on the packaging. Where an American consumer might eat the whole chocolate bar in one sitting without paying much attention to the packaging, the Chinese consumer would be selective in choosing the chocolate bar or bag because it would be given as a gift.

Photo credit: Huffington Post

The U.S. market favors Mars DOVE brand as well. The Huffington Post looked at America’s favorite chocolates and DOVE performed quite well, going above other giants like Cadbury and Hershey’s.

But again, we have to question Mars motivation in featuring a woman in the throes of passion, writhing her way in and out of shot. The DOVE commercial does exhibit great visual effects to showcase the “stars” of the new chocolate blend being advertised, however, but even these are very sensual. The fruit has chocolate poured over it and then there are bursts as shot after shot capture the movement of fruit, nuts, and chocolate being melded as one.

Alternative Advertisement

The alternate way of advertising DOVE’s Fruit and Nut Blends is simply by focusing on those very things. The fruit does take on a few characteristics that could be interpreted to be gender-specific, but it is all in the eye of the beholder. The nuts dance about as the dark chocolate rains from above.

Relevantly, Robertson (2009) writes that chocolate lends itself to fantasy-sometimes this illusion is one of sensuality and excess- but why must it always be women who go crazy and lose their minds? Advertisements can be witty and enticing without being sexual. DOVE Chocolate already enjoys a good share of the market and the chocolate should be able to sell itself on its own merits; in this case, whether it be for the American or Chinese consumer. The dominant query for this particular DOVE advertisement was actually about the music, not the chocolate. To sum, if DOVE wants conversation and buzz to swirl around their latest creation, it should be focused on what is different about this chocolate versus their last.

References

Allen, L.L. (2010). Chocolate fortunes: The battle for the hearts, minds, and wallets of China’s consumers. New York: AMACOM.

The aim of an advert is to promote a product and entice people to buy it. Marketing companies use people’s desires and emotions to promote products. However, in attempt to attract the largest audience, they often appeal to the general population and use social norms and stereotypes to advertise. For example, the vast majority of chocolate advertisements are targeted at women because women are stereotyped to consume vastly more chocolate than men, even though research has proven otherwise. Mintel found that females only consume 4% more chocolate than males (CNN; Mintel 2010; Mintel 2014). This is a surprising statistic. Many people expect a larger difference since advertisements have fostered the stereotype that women eat more chocolate than men. With advertisements present on televisions, billboards, the internet, magazines, newspapers, taxis, supermarkets, public transport, and many more places, it is estimated that each person is exposed to 3,000 advertisements per day (Johnson; Story). Therefore, problematic social beliefs are affirmed daily, as we are exposed to thousands of advertisements that perpetuate stereotypical representations of social norms. Therefore, even if an advert is based on a small idea, with daily exposure it becomes a stereotype, and the young next generation are fed these stereotypes and social norms such that they no longer see them as ideas but as truth. Thus, marketers have a huge influence and power on creating or affirming society’s beliefs. Therefore, marketers must be conscious of the message they send out as they advertise their products.

The Original Dove Advertisement

In 2007 the marketers of Dove were not careful with their advertising power and released the advert below. This advertisement is built on many troublingly social beliefs and is discriminative.

Firstly, Dove has completely sexualised men here. They centred and enlarged the abs to fill the entire advertisement, blurred out the sides and background, increased the shadow under each ab, and increased the light reflected off of each ab. This highlights and make us focus only on the muscle and its definition, as if that is the only thing that is important. The human body has many components: emotional, spiritual, mental, physical, and intellectual components. Even physically the human body has many parts and yet Dove chose to show only the male’s abdominal muscles. This promotes a superficial attitude towards men and degrades them to being an aesthetic pleasure, something of only physical worth.

Furthermore, Dove does not only degrade men to a physical body but even more so, their choice to use of a man of colour degrades black men to an object. Dove has used the racist social construct that as Caucasians are to vanilla, Hispanics are to caramel, and Asians are to butterscotch, blacks are to chocolate. Their use of a black model and dim enticing sexual lighting shows that Dove is fostering the idea that while whiteness symbolises ideas of cleanliness, purity, dullness, and blandness, blackness denotes themes of dirt, sin, extreme sexuality, and interest. Therefore, the lack of use of the model’s face and the use of the model’s skin colour to compare him as chocolate represents the disrespectful degradation of black men from a person to an object – a chocolate bar that is worth roughly one dollar.

From the small text at the bottom of the advertisement we see that the intended audience of this advert is a girl. The first issue is that Dove promotes heterosexual relationships and excludes homosexuals. Therefore Dove has tagged along and helped grow one of the biggest problems in chocolate advertising today – extremely frequently, only heterosexual relationships are used to sell chocolate. This Nestlé compilation video shows three examples of such exclusion towards those who are in the minority and are not heterosexually oriented.

Dove’s advert is not only sexist and discriminates against men, but their specific wording fosters common stereotypes that surround women too. The word “melts” plays on and encourages the idea that women are overly emotional and irrational over chocolate and muscles, so much so that their most vital organ will melt after one look at a six-pack and a taste of Dove’s chocolate. Additionally, the use of the word “girl’s” instead of “woman’s” is demeaning because it suggests that in this heterosexual relationship the male is superior and the female is inferior. All in all, Dove’s wording suggests that men are more dominant and in control, which promotes a patriarchal social construct and prevents us from moving towards a gender equal society.

The Recreated Advertisement

To show that it is possible to advertise chocolate without fostering disrespectful social norms, being racist, sexist, or excluding people, I have recreated Dove’s chocolate advert below.

The primary goal of an advertisement is to promote the product that you are trying to sell. Unlike in Dove’s advertisement, chocolate is clearly the product here. It is at the centre. It is large. It is clear. In Dove’s advert “Dove chocolate” was finely printed at the bottom and the tiny chocolate bar and pieces were in the lower bottom right corner. Previously, only if you looked closely could you have been able to tell that it was an advertisement for chocolate.

Furthermore, the recreated advert has moved away from promoting social norms. Since a six-piece chocolate bar has replaced the previously racialised and sexualised six-pack, the advert no longer degrades a person to their physique, nor to an object. The recreated advert also includes numerous races and people of different ethnicities so that the advertisement is neither exclusive nor racist. The ideas of a patriarchal society, overly emotional and irrational woman, and the exclusion of non-heterosexuals have been removed. Instead, the audience has opened up to be all-inclusive as the recreated advertisement plays on the idea that chocolate is fundamentally social: The Maya word “chokola’j”, a potential source for our Spanish and English word for chocolate today, means “to drink chocolate together” (S. D. Coe and M. D. Coe 61).

Concluding thoughts

Marketing companies need to be more conscious about the methods they use to promote their products. There is no problem in promoting products to inform potential consumers what they might want to purchase; however, this should be done in a way that does not exclude, racialise, sexualise, discriminate, or degrade people or communities, or affirm or encourage the growth of disrespectful social norms. A safer way to ensure moral marketing is to keep the adverts focused on the product itself – what it can do, its purpose, and why it is worth purchasing. This will help prevent the fostering of disrespectful stereotypes and social norms and enable us to be a progressive society.

In the advertisement above a computer generated image (CGI) of Audrey Hepburn is used to sell Dove dark chocolate (Rohwedder). It is most likely aimed at the target demographic of women whom Audrey represents. The advertising company cleverly resurrects the adored late Audrey Hepburn. Her computerized look alike cleverly portrays Audrey’s iconic persona so convincingly that it almost feels like Audrey is and always will be with us. This association of Dove dark chocolate with Audrey the immortal legend who represents beauty, innocence, and sweetness refreshingly stands out amongst other ads which use sexualized imagery to sell chocolate products. The Dove chocolate advertisement emulates Audrey’s feminine and naive innocence, and the purity of 1950’s. Together these elements stand in stark contrast to the typical and predictable techniques to sell products with overt sexualization.

The story line and narrative of the advertisement which is set in the idealized 50’s era, cleverly recreates the feel of the 1953 film “The Roman Holiday” starring Ms. Hepburn. The delightful visuals of a charming coastal Italian town, with hints of romance and the purity of an era of film long past, all work perfectly to set the tone. The computer generated Audrey Hepburn and her handsome lead man who closely resembles the iconic Cary Grant give a sense of a whimsical light-hearted unpredictability. The story starts with lovely Audrey sitting on a packed public bus which is stuck in a traffic. The mayhem is due to a collapsed fruit stand and it’s flamboyant owner. Audrey (or the CGI version of Audrey) looks longingly into her purse at her bar of Dove dark chocolate, then she glances out her bus window and meets the eyes of a handsome man in a car alongside the bus. When their eyes meet he gives Audrey an inviting wave gesturing her to his car. She smiles and without hesitation strolls out of the bus and playfully takes the bus drivers hat on her way to the handsome strangers car. She places the bus driver’s hat on the handsome man’s head, takes a seat in the back of his car- intimating and officiating him as her chauffeur. Looking slightly put out and yet besotted with her at the same time he drives away with Audrey in the back seat. The final scene is of Audrey with the handsome man driving on a winding coastal road as she snaps off a piece of Dove dark chocolate, placing it into her mouth framed by her perfectly scarlet glossed lips when the words “It’s not just dark. It’s Dove” appear against a perfect blue Italian sky. The advertisement refreshingly sells the chocolate by leaving the audience with the resonating feeling of romance, happiness, and beauty and lingering warm thoughts of chocolate. Moreover, the ad refreshingly empowers lovely and pure Audrey to sell their dark chocolate.

Now that I have discussed the CGI version of adorable, innocent and flirty Audrey Hepburn as the star of the Dove chocolate commercial. For my advertisement, I created a montage of another side of Audrey. She remains the star of the ad, and similarly she is not sexualized in the ad in order to sell chocolate, but she does represents and evoke the opposite emotions of the romantic advertisement. The opposite of sweet, flirty, and happy go lucky is angry, sad, and unromantic and these emotions used correctly can also sell chocolate. In my advertisement, Audrey portrays women’s darker emotions and the audience is left with the resonating desire to consumedark chocolate. While both advertisements use the technique of using emotion to persuade, opposite emotions are employed in each ad.Audrey sells both while retaining her purity, innocence, and charm. Ultimately both advertisements sell chocolate, one to celebrate and relax and the other to comfort and calm, both appeal to the demographic of women.

In the advertisement I produced the clips and scenes were drawn from a few Audrey Hepburn films to give thetumultuous and intense emotions of sadness, stress, and anxiety, which call require chocolate. Sometimes chocolate can be the only fix to receive comfort during these times. My advertisement implicitly delivers the message that if you need comfort, only a bar of dark chocolate will do. When I chose to use the more realistic, misunderstood, sad or angry, and even comical sections of Audrey’s films the technique of persuasion even worked on me. While editing my advertisement I had to eat dark chocolate. My persuasion technique was effective on me, who doesn’t turn to chocolate to comfort themselves. Find an escape in chocolate in good times and in bad like Audrey and every other woman.

Since the 1940s chocolate advertising has largely been dominated by stereotyped and hypersexualized images of women, or sexualized images of men FOR women4. They depict women with a lack of self-control, of women caving to their ‘guilty’ pleasures, of women giving in to the temptation and sins of chocolate4. This form of advertising, however, has consequences that go beyond its blatantly offensive stereotypes. Such highly gendered advertising perpetuates images of perfection that in turn create impossible standards. The resulting culture is one of indulgence and shame that often has extremely negative consequences. To combat the negative imagery that exists in advertising, there needs to be a shift, where women are portrayed as inspirations of a healthy lifestyle that encourages moderation instead of guilt and perfection.

Impossible Standards

Dove Chocolate Advertisement (1)

“A six-pack that melts a girl’s heart.” This ad often appears in critiques of chocolate advertising. It shows the abs of what appears to be a black male, clearly edited and enhanced. The ad makes reference to the temptation of the male body for women in the same way that chocolate also tempts women. This reinforces the stereotype that women are both sex crazed and obsessed with chocolate; a stereotype that is largely a consequence of chocolate’s supposed aphrodisiac qualities4. But I would like to dig a little further into the effects of this ad. To sell the product, the advertisement compares Dove chocolate to this impossibly perfect male figure. The association begins with women, who are clearly the target of this ad, desiring this perfect male figure. His figure dominates the visual space of the ad, filling the image with a picture of desire for women. The attention then focuses to the bottom right hand corner, to the bar of chocolate. This bar and the figure have the same coloring, the same editing, and even the same shaping. This resemblance serves to create an immediate association between the man that is desirable and the chocolate, thereby making that chocolate desirable. The text at the bottom is the final focus, since it is small print that blends into the coloring of the picture, which serves to reinforce the association between this “perfect” man and thus the perfect chocolate that all women are supposed to want desperately. This ad plays to the sexual desires of women as well as their insecurities about body image and its implications for actually being in a relationship with the perfect man. This ad has two major implications: 1) it is created based on the idea that women must desire the ‘perfect’ man who is represented by singularly physical (and unattainable) attributes and 2) that men do the “melting” while women are the ones who are “melted”, reinforcing a hetero-normative sexual hierarchy that chocolate advertising has long perpetuated. As well there is a distinct contradiction at work- the male figure is perfect in this ad, thereby selling the chocolate to women. However, according to mainstream media, to get the perfect man, women shouldn’t being eating chocolate because they too need a perfect body! Such impossible standards and contradictions breed a culture that shames women and places them into an inferior relationship with the men around them.

Inspiration

The entire purpose of advertisements is to make consumers buy a product. But in ads like the Dove ad above, marketers are inflicting a ridiculous cultural stigma onto customers with potentially very damaging effects. In a 2009 study, researchers found that women who were exposed to advertisements that used thin models were more likely to avoid chocolate2. The counter to this avoidance was that the women then experienced extreme cravings for chocolate since they were intentionally depriving themselves of it, leading to excessive indulgence and feelings of guilt and shame2. The study concluded that this could be a possible link to a culture of eating disorders brought on by the exposure to the advertisements2. The Dove ad that uses a male model may be less directly correlated to female eating disorders, but it still has massive psychological effects and contributes to the impossible standard that is present in our culture.

Original Advertisement created for the Chocolate Class Blog (5)

As a response to such negative and damaging advertising, I created an ad that featured images of the top female rock climbers in the world. I chose pictures that intentionally showed them doing their sport rather than modeling. My purpose in including them was to inspire rather than demoralize women. These women constitute several generations of ground breaking female athletes at the top of their sport, competing and often ahead of their male counterparts. These pictures show their skill and strength rather than objectifying them. The accompanying slogan is a direct response to the previous reference that only males have six-packs and muscles. Additionally I think that despite our crazy guilt over what NOT to eat, chocolate can have a healthy place in our diet. In moderation, it can in fact be a very positive food, and not just an indulgence to an irrational craving. By showing that real women eat chocolate on a daily basis as part of a balanced diet serves to encourage a healthy lifestyle that is not fraught by a binge and purge mentality.

Reality

Ads that encourage healthy habits instead of guilt and impossible standards do actually exist in the world of advertising. In an ad for JoJo’s chocolate bark (a homemade dark chocolate snack), we encounter a woman with an inspirational story who is simply trying to live a healthier lifestyle after a close call with cancer. Additionally, the ad features a woman and a man who do cross fit and eat the bark, showing its benefits as well as showing real unedited people who live a healthy active life. While not entirely rid of stereotypes (white woman in her kitchen, making chocolate that her son likes to eat… sounds eerily similar to the original housewife ads of Cadbury and Rowntree) I think it is a step in the right direction. Ads like this will help to break the relationship between women and the stereotypes of guilty eating and hypersexualization, as well as help to make chocolate a part of a healthy balanced lifestyle.

Whether you are advertising a car, a cheeseburger, or a pair of sneakers, sex always sells.

We’ve seen it time and time again—a woman, caught in a moment of pure, rapturous ecstasy, unable to control her own limbs, all because of a single morsel of chocolate. Ideally, that would be the case every time one bit into a chocolate bar, but the reality is that most of the time, chocolate is a thing of comfort. Whether it’s been a long day at the office, or you’re mourning a lost love, or perhaps you finally have house to yourself for a night, a bit of chocolate does seem to make it all better (at least momentarily). This isn’t to say that chocolate cannot be a very sensual delight. However, it is unrealistic to assume the every-day, modern woman has a few hours to spare in the evening to draw a bath and soak, all for the sake of enjoying her sinful moment of cocoa bliss (Figure 1).

Figure 1: 1991 Cadbury’s Flake Advertisement Feat. Rachel Brown

This contorted, sexualized depiction of chocolate consumption is evident in the DOVE Chocolate advertisement (Figure 2) titled, “Senses.” As part of the “My Moment. My DOVE.” branding campaign, the commercial utilizes the notion of this raw, sexual consumption of the food to advertise their product. The shot opens to a brunette beauty, scantily clad in a chocolate-colored chemise gown as sultry music plays in the background. The commercial voiceover remarks: “Only a chocolate this pure can be this silky…” just as the woman takes a bite; she then smiles to show the instant gratification she experiences the moment it touches her lips. As the “tantalizing” taste of silk chocolate ensnares her senses, a rain of chocolate silk envelops her body, and the voice continues “…and make you savor, sigh, [and] melt.” Her last look to the viewer is one of complete satisfaction, sighing as the screen fades to the product sitting on a bed of brown silk. “…DOVE pure silk chocolate, now with a tantalizing crunch of almond.”

Figure 2: DOVE Silk Chocolate “Senses” Commercial

There is a duality in the imagery of this advertisement, as the implications of what the company depicts can be analyzed both literally and figuratively. In a direct interpretation of the advert, the woman takes a bite of the chocolate, the falling fabric representing the “silky” nature of the product. She smiles because the chocolate is delicious. In a deeper investigation, the portrayal addresses the viewer on a much more sensual, carnal level.

At first glance, chocolate advertising appears to cater to base appetites, but it simultaneously arouses appetites of a social nature by promising to satisfy viewers’ deep-seated desires for sexual fulfillment and higher class status (Fahim 1).

“Senses” taps into the subject of female sexuality, relying heavily on the dynamic of the recipient and the source. As Emma Robertson asserts in her book Chocolate, women, and empire, there is an orgasmic pleasure that is brought about by the woman’s need to consume chocolate, and those natural responses to sexual gratification are what such commercials depict (35). Mars (owner of the DOVE brand) is not alone—big manufacturers such as Cadbury and Ferrero are culprits as well, using primarily women (and sometimes men, as seen in Figure 3) for marketing purposes. Robertson states that western identifications of chocolate as “luxurious, hedonistic and sensual” are the primary foundations of advertisement; those concepts unquestionably ring true in the examples shown below (3).

Figure 3: 1960’s Cadbury’s “Waterfall” Flake Advertisement

Figure 4: Nestle Aero Bubbles Advertisement Feat. Jason Lewis

My aim in rebranding this DOVE campaign is to honestly portray the normalcy of the food in a way that is relatable to all women (and men, for that matter). Robertson claims that we use goods as a means of expressing our own sense of identity, and advertisements are a mechanism in which we can “say things about ourselves, our families, [and] our social world” (19). In my still advert, my intent was to do just that.

Original DOVE Silk Chocolate Still Advertisement

Rather than portray the female lead as a perfectly-coiffed, well-dressed model, I drew what I believe to be a realistic representation of the modern woman, enjoying DOVE chocolate in her most relaxed setting. In her “moment”, it is a Friday night after a long day at the office. All the character wants to do is to change into a pair of ratty sweatpants and her college t-shirt, free herself from the suffocating constraints of her Victoria’s Secret bra, and to sit on her couch for the next four hours, just to enjoy a peaceful evening of poorly-rated reality television. Her elevated cuisine consists of microwavable popcorn, a few glasses of Two-Buck Chuck, and lastly, a whole bar (yes, a whole bar) of DOVE Silk Chocolate. She takes out her contact lenses and swaps them for her thick-framed glasses, settles into the concave section of her couch, and revels in the full comfort of being in her own space, her home. The tagline is as modest as the small joys in life the woman experiences in this scene: “My Moment. My DOVE.”

This illustration may not be glamorous, sexy, or edited to perfection, but it is an honest representation of chocolate consumption in this day and age. It most definitely is not the case for all those who enjoy the treat, but the purpose of this advertisement is to alleviate the blatant sexual connotations of most chocolate commercials—it is not to create a blanket statement to dictate how one should experience simple bliss. Perhaps if advertisers focused on realistic representations of their subjects, viewers would share a more meaningful connection with their products. Sex sells, but honesty is a breath of fresh air.

For an industry trying to rid itself of a reputation rooted in unfair labor practices and misrepresentation, DOVE’s advertisement (below) does the opposite. The contrast between black and white appears prominently, the presumed consumption of chocolate by a woman suggests its gendered attribution, and the portion-controlled offering insinuates that people do not have the ability to resist consuming chocolate, overemphasizing its alluring effects. In the following analysis, I consider these three shortcomings of this advertisement, and create an alternative option which takes them into account. Instead of marketing chocolate in a racialized, sexualized, and obsessive manner like DOVE, and many chocolate companies do today, the new advertisement I created focuses on giving chocolate as a gift between friends. By placing the pieces of chocolate in the shape of a heart, the intention is twofold: to value the source of its production and to demonstrate the way chocolate can bring people together.

DOVE Chocolate was founded by Leo Stefanos in the 1950s, who named “the new treat after his south side candy shop, a moniker chosen for its ‘peaceful’ quality” (Dove Chocolate 2009). See the DOVE Chocolate timeline here. In 1986, DOVE was acquired by M&M/Mars, which worked to improve the appeal of the chocolate, refining DOVE’s taste in the process. DOVE is known as a creamy indulgence, lying on a spectrum between the all-American Hershey and high-end Ghirardelli products. The advertisement above, released in 2008, demonstrates the line’s emphasis on how DOVE gives its consumer ‘me-time.’ The product is intended to be indulgent, using pure cocoa butter to create a smooth texture; DOVE centers its advertising approach on giving consumers their “me” moments in the midst of busy work and home lives.

Advertisement Critique

Upon viewing the DOVE advertisement initially, I noted the contrasting dark and light shades throughout the image. Chocolate and vanilla have long served as metaphors for race (Martin Lecture 9). Vanilla is linked to whiteness, associated with purity and cleanliness, while chocolate is linked to blackness, associated with impurity and sin, dirtiness, and sexuality. In this advertisement, the brown bed sheets signify darkness, closely resembling the color of the chocolate bar at the bottom of the image, and representing the enslaved West African cacao farmers. The woman’s expression portrays the pleasure experienced by a white consumer after enjoying a piece of DOVE Chocolate, removed from the labor of the farmers which provides the source of her contentment. Carol Off demonstrates her reaction to the forced labor that children in Cote d’Ivoire perform. “I feel the profound irony before me: the children who struggle to produce the small delights of life in the world I come from have never known such pleasure, and most likely, they never will” (2008).

The advertisement’s use of dark and light represents the distinction between the wealthy, white American customer who blissfully dreams of the piece of DOVE Chocolate she ate and the West African cacao farmers who toil away to produce it. The use of contrasting colors and shades extends its role in symbolizing darkness and whiteness; chocolate serves as a euphemism for people of color against the color of the white woman who has just enjoyed chocolate as an indulgent treat.

The woman’s presence in the DOVE Chocolate advertisement portrays females as irrational actors who use chocolate to indulge themselves. The woman seems lost in an alternative world as a result of consuming chocolate. In fact, “the consumption of chocolate in the west became feminized early in its history” (Robertson 2009). Here, and in many other chocolate ads, women are portrayed as having a sexualized relationship with chocolate (Robertson 2009). Thus its marketing includes romanticism and self-indulgence, continuing the stereotype of an excessive passion related to chocolate consumption.

Finally, this image’s advertisement of portion-controlled chocolate emphasizes the fact that consumers cannot refrain from eating too much chocolate, particularly in the West. Candy became demonized alongside the temperance movement in the late eighteenth century (Martin Lecture 7). Candy became increasingly regarded as the cause for childhood cavities and obesity among “overindulging adults.” Lawrence Allen explores how the Big Five chocolate companies battled over their presence in China, evaluating the difference between the perception of chocolate as a good in the East versus the West. “It is also the inside story of East meeting West through the introduction into China, a xenophobic land of austerity and deprivation, of an icon of the Western world’s decadence and self-indulgence: chocolate” (2010). The Western market’s regard for chocolate as a luxurious, indulgent good for oneself contrasted with the Eastern image of chocolate for gift-giving purposes. However, alongside this self-indulgent use is the idea that people do not have the self-control to limit their consumption, which is suggested through the woman’s expression and the wording at the bottom of the ad.

New Advertisement

Above, I created an alternative advertisement for DOVE Chocolate. It excludes the presence of people in order to remove stereotypes based on race, ethnicity, and gender. This omission also removes any sexualized themes from the advertisement. In this ad, chocolate is not portrayed as an object that cannot be resisted; instead of focusing on self-indulgence through having a “[me] moment,” DOVE Chocolate is used to do something for others. While DOVE encourages people to reconnect with themselves, my advertisement encourages them to reconnect with each other and with its sourcing. I included the Rainforest Alliance symbol within the ad (below) to educate consumers about DOVE’s agreement that 100% of its cocoa are from Rainforest Alliance certified farms. These “well managed cacao farms help reduce soil erosion, improve air quality, and provide a habitat for animals, often conserving remnants of once-plentiful tropical forests” (Dove Chocolate 2009).

Conclusions

By portraying DOVE Chocolate as a way of fostering friendships and as a sustainable chocolate company, the new advertisement emphasizes its beneficial qualities rather than furthering stereotypes perpetuated throughout the modern industry. “Adverts have perpetuated western sexist and racist ideologies under a veneer of pleasurable consumption, and have divorced chocolate from the conditions of production” (Robertson 2009). Modern chocolate advertisements display a racialized and sexualized presentation of the product; the above ad suggests that humans cannot limit their indulgence and need outside assistance to resist the temptation. The ad that I proposed brings DOVE’s positive attributes to the forefront, deemphasizing the way it has been previously misrepresented by focusing on friendships instead of sexualized relationships, and on the company’s sustainable practices.

Works Cited

Allen, Lawrence L. “Chocolate Fortunes: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds, and Wallets of China’s Consumers.” Thunderbird International Business Review 52.1 (2010): 13-20.